Thomas W. Wilson Jr., was a pioneer in the development of automatic identification technology. In the 1970 as a McKinsey partner, he picked up Andy Pearson's food industry retail and manufacturing practice when Andy left to become President of Pepsi. The food industry, frustrated by years of failure to agree on a standard coding for SKU's, in '69 formed an Ad Hoc committee to seek agreement. Tom revitalized a long dormant McKinsey project started by Andy for NAFC to develop a standard code and led its revitalization and expansion to industry sponsorship with the inclusion of potential automation as a target. This fleshed out the charter of the Ad Hoc and McKinsey, Tom leading, became its principal consultant. Tom did the broad thinking, handled the relationships with industry leaders and fronted on governmental matters. He continued on through the '70's and '80's as the primary consultant to the UCC Board of Governors, and did much to shape its policies, its organization structure and its road to the success enjoyed by the UPC effort. In addition, as a confident of and consultant to Albert Heijn, he played a major role in the creation of EAN.